June 27, 2000 09:00am Second Miami Official Caught in Prostitution StingSource: Reuters

(MIAMI, FL) -- A second Miami official was caught in a prostitution sting operation just blocks away and within hours of a city police officer's alleged solicitation of an undercover police officer for sex, Miami police said on Tuesday.

Norman Lindeblad, who heads the county office in charge of investigating school employee misconduct like sexual harassment, was arrested on Saturday for soliciting sex from a woman undercover officer.

He was caught on the same street as Maj. Juan Garcia, who had recently been in the running for city police chief and who was instrumental in the April raid to seize Cuban castaway Elian Gonzalez from the home of his Miami relatives.

Lindeblad is executive director of Miami-Dade County Schools' Office of Professional Standards,

Prosecutors are still deciding whether to arrest Garcia, 42, who led Miami's Special Investigations Section.

Police spokesman Lt. Bill Schwartz said he had ``no idea'' why Lindeblad was arrested and Garcia was not. ``That's part of the Internal Affairs investigation now,'' Schwartz said.

Police said Lindeblad, 58, stopped just after noon on Saturday near an intersection north of downtown and said to an undercover officer posing as a prostitute, ``Meet me around the corner. I don't pick up this close to the boulevard. There's too many cops.''

He then allegedly offered the officer $20 for a sexual act, police said.

Lindeblad, a 35-year veteran of the school board, was temporarily reassigned to the risk management department pending an investigation, said school board spokesman Alberto Carvalho.

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